Newspapers expand free classified ads

On May 12 Tribune expanded its Recycler.com business into a larger number of cities. And just recently Knight Ridder made a similar move.

Apparently this is the new strategy for newspapers:

• Free sites such as Craigslist.com threaten to suck up all the classifieds business. Newspapers are in no position to keep charging.
• Newspapers still have the brand name and the offline business to work from. Knight Ridder will introduce a service that lets users produce an ad that will appear both online and offline.
• The online world offers a new source of revenue, related to classified advertising: sponsored search.

Loooks like a fine (inescapable?) strategy, that will allow newspapers to survive, albeit at a much smaller scale.